US lawmaker investigates whether Russia behind Snowden's leaks

WASHINGTON: The head of the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee said on Sunday he is investigating whether former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden had help from Russia in stealing and revealing U.S. government secrets.

"I believe there's a reason he ended up in the hands - the loving arms - of an FSB agent in Moscow. I don't think that's a coincidence," U.S. Representative Mike Rogers told the NBC program "Meet the Press," referring to the Russian intelligence agency that is a successor of the Soviet-era KGB.

Snowden last year fled the United States to Hong Kong and then to Russia, where he was granted at least a year of asylum. U.S. officials want Snowden returned to the United States for prosecution. His disclosures of large numbers of stolen U.S. secret documents sparked a debate around the world about the reach of U.S. electronic surveillance.

Rogers did not provide specific evidence to back his suggestions of Russian involvement in Snowden's activities, but said: "Some of the things we're finding we would call clues that certainly would indicate to me that he had some help."

Asked whether he is investigating Russian links to Snowden's activities, Rogers said, "Absolutely. And that investigation is ongoing."

Senator Dianne Feinstein, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on "Meet the Press" that Snowden "may well have" had help from Russia.

"We don't know at this stage," Feinstein said.

Feinstein said Snowden gained employment at the National Security Agency "with the intent to take as much material down as he possibly could."

On the ABC program "This Week," U.S. Representative Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, also expressed his belief that Snowden had foreign help.

"Hey, listen, I don't think ... Mr. Snowden woke up one day and had the wherewithal to do this all by himself," he said.

"I personally believe that he was cultivated by a foreign power to do what he did," McCaul said.